Lagos Assembly Approves Sanwo-Olu’s Request To Purchase Cars For MDAs

The Lagos State House of Assembly has approved a request made to its lawmakers by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the purchase of 355 vehicles for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the state.

The number of cars is out of the 916 needed for various officials of the government.

The approval was carried out through a voice vote at the sitting on Thursday presided over by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. (Dr) Mudashiru Obasa.

The Acting Clerk of the House, Mr. Olalekan Onafeko, had on Monday March 22 announced during plenary that the Assembly received a letter from the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget seeking approval to expend from the special expenditure to procure vehicles for official use by officials of the MDAs to aid effective and efficient service.

Speaker Obasa had subsequently committed the request to the House Committee on Economic Planning and Budget headed by Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti Osa 2).

The committee was asked to report to the House on Thursday.

Presenting the report during plenary on Thursday, Hon. Gbolahan Yishawu explained that the Committee invited the state’s Head of Service (HOS), Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola, and the Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Mrs. Abiola Liadi amongst others to defend the request.

He noted that the three requests to expend from the special expenditure votes included the sum of N464, 375,000 Million, N1, 395, 300 billion and N2,567,535,000 Billion totalling N4,427,210 Billion.

The money, he said, is to be financed from the Special Expenditure Votes of the 2021 Appropriation Law.

According to Yishawu, the Committee urged the officials of the state government to include the purchase of vehicles for government officials in subsequent budgets rather than requesting for purchase of vehicles from special expenditure votes.

The lawmaker revealed that the state government actually needed about 1,006 for its officials as discovered by the Committee, but that the Governor approved only 355 due to shortage of fund.

The House also passed the Bill for A Law to Consolidate All Laws Relating to The Transport Sector 2021.

The House later adjourned sitting to Monday 12th April, 2021.